NCAA Men's Tournament 2022: Ultimate Guide to the Elite Eight

Your bracket is now just smoke in the wind. Let it dissipate. Invite yourself to be thankful, dare I say Zen, about your defeat. Because now you can relax and enjoy one of the most intriguing, surprising, and historic Elite Eights in recent memory—or maybe any memory. 

For starters, only one of the four No. 1 seeds reached the field. That's only the fourth time that's happened since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Even sparklier, the Peacocks of Saint Peter's University are the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight. Take out your quill and parchment and mark it down. The slipper fit in 2022.

And that's just the beginning of what should be a scintillating field as March Madness becomes more and more concentrated until it all boils down to the final game. Here's your complete guide to the Elite Eight.

Styles Make Fights—and Championships

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Justin Moore (right)

Teams: No. 2 Villanova Wildcats (29-7) vs. No. 5 Houston Cougars (32-5)

Region: South

Date and time of game: Saturday, 6:09 p.m. ET (TBS)

Betting line (DraftKings): Houston -150 (bet $150 to win $100)

Houston is KenPom's eighth-ranked defense in the land. Villanova is ninth in offense. This will be a test of wills between arguably the two most tough-minded programs in the field of 68.

Against Michigan, Villanova coach Jay Wright turned to Jermaine Samuels to check star seven-footer Hunter Dickinson. Samuels proceeded to not only play solid D but record his best offensive effort of the tournament with a game-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals. That was a needed addition to the production they get from star guards Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore. 

Michigan had a smart strategy of its own, aiming to minimize fouls and keep Villanova off the free-throw line, where they led the nation with an 82.6 percent success rate. It succeeded, as Villanova ultimately had just 12 attempts Thursday, substantially below their season average of 16.9.

This could be an important subplot against Houston, which committed 17.2 fouls per game this season, just 134th in the country. They just committed 21 against Arizona, leading to 23 free throws. If Houston's aggression turns to sloppiness, the Wildcats will make them pay.

Houston knows plenty about slop, routinely making opposing teams look bad. Their tough D held opponents this season to a nation's-best 37.4 percent shooting. Their ultra-slow tempo just limited fast-paced Arizona to 54 field goal attempts—well below their 61.3 average. The Cougars also scored 24 points off 14 turnovers. They held Arizona stars Bennedict Mathurin and Christian Koloko to a combined 6-of-20 shooting, preventing Mathurin from scoring on back cuts and forcing him to miss his first six shots. 

Villanova is not a terrible rebounding team, but Houston is a school of piranhas on the offensive glass, tied for second in the nation with a 37.7 offensive rebounding percentage. Samuels and Villanova will have to do something about that.

Houston's bread and butter is guarding guards. Jamal Shead, Taze Moore and company will be champing at the bit to suffocate Gillespie and the Wildcat offense along with him.

It would be in no way a surprise for the winner of this game to emerge as the national champion. Both are veteran-laden, battle-tested, talented in a variety of ways and hell-bent on winning every possession.

Can the Hogs End Coach K’s Farewell Tour?

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Jaylin Williams

Teams: No. 2 Duke Blue Devils (29-7) vs. No. 4 Arkansas Razorbacks (31-6)

Region: West

Date and time of game: Saturday, ASAP after Houston-Villanova completion (TBS)

Betting line (DraftKings): Duke -180

This is another game with a compelling clash of styles, both of them polished to a high mirror shine.

Duke finished the season second in KenPom’s offensive rankings, while Arkansas clocked in at 11th on defensive rankings.

Texas Tech stifled Paolo Banchero inside, denying him from getting the ball in rhythm. Banchero did not score until the 13:15 mark in the first half, then didn’t score in the second half until nearly nine minutes had elapsed.

But a balanced Duke team made that work to its advantage, with Jeremy Roach and Mark Williams both turning in big games as the defense fixated on Banchero. Roach tallied 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting, five assists and four rebounds. Williams recorded 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, eight rebounds and three blocks. Roach in particular was a potent weapon. It's hard to believe he was benched for long stretches of the regular season. That underachiever no longer seems to exist.

Even with all this, Banchero still got his in the end, and he did it when it mattered most. With poise and determination that wasn't always in evidence during the season, Banchero scored a game-high 22 points, including a clutch three-pointer that put the Dukies up for good. 

Duke is jelling at the right time. I also heard their coach may be leaving? Something to keep an eye on.

For the Razorbacks, the key contributor in their 74-68 win over mighty Gonzaga was Jaylin Williams. Williams played tough interior defense on Drew Timme, repeatedly bothering him into tough shots. Timme still ended up with 25 points but needed 19 shots to get there. Williams' final line against the tournament’s top overall seed was 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting, 12 rebounds, three assists and one block. 

Super-center Chet Holmgren was conspicuous in his absence, confined to the bench for much of the first half thanks to two early fouls and fouling out with 3:30 left. Arkansas excels at drawing fouls, sitting seventh in the nation in free throws per field goal attempt and 19th in free throw attempt rate. 

Arkansas did not play a perfect game. The team has always struggled with shot selection, and in this game heaved up a lot of off-balance, heat-check type garbage, as reflected in their 7-of-25 conversion rate from three. It was fitting, then, that the game-clincher for Arkansas wasn’t a big shot but a chase-down block by Audiese Toney of Andrew Nembhard’s layup with about 10 seconds remaining. 

Duke just survived the nation's No. 1 defense per KenPom in Texas Tech, so Arkansas won't be much of a novelty. Their twin towers of 6'10" Banchero and 7'0" Willams will pose a challenge for the smaller Razorbacks.

And yet, Gonzaga had two seven-footers and that didn't seem to matter, so you tell me. Arkansas is associated with rock fights, but they like to get out in transition, too, and could use their speed to stay ahead of Duke’s bigs.

Ultimately this game is the college basketball equivalent of "here's my fastball, let's see if you can hit it."

Duke is 18-0 when it shoots better than 50 percent and 13-6 when it shoots under 50 percent. Arkansas has allowed 40.9 percent shooting on average this season and 38.9 percent in the tournament. Someone's going to blink. 

Here’s guessing Duke keeps Coach K’s final ride going for at least one more game, notching his 101st career tournament win and 13th Final Four appearance.

Can Saint Peter’s Keep Doing This?

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Caleb Love

Teams: No. 15 Saint Peter's Peacocks (22-11) vs. No. 8 North Carolina Tar Heels (27-9)

Region: East

Date and time of game: Sunday, TBD (CBS)

Betting line (DraftKings): North Carolina -350

Move over, VCU. Bon Voyage, Villanova. Sorry, Sister Jean and Loyola-Chicago. Farewell, Florida Gulf Coast. You get the idea.

Saint Peters' 67-64 win over Purdue meant a new entry on the all-time list of men’s tournament upset specials. This isn’t even a mid-major. This is more of a low-to-mid-major, now lifted to the sport’s highest pinnacle. So spread your prodigious plumage, Saint Peter’s Peacocks. Spread them far and wide for all the people to witness.

Saint Peter’s takes positionless basketball to a nameless level. They moved as a unit on both ends and took a surprising lead into halftime.

The defense was good, especially down low, but we all know that by now with the Peacocks, who sit sixth nationally in allowing just 43.5 percent on two-point shooting. But the Boilermakers hurt their own cause, flat-out whiffing on several open looks. One of the nation’s best offenses was 23-of-54 (42.6 percent) from the floor including 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) from three, both well below their season averages. The 64 points they managed was 15 points under their usual 79.8.

Purdue went without a field goal in the first six minutes of the second half. This was when the crowd started to smell whatever enters the air when Cinderella appears at the top of the stairs. The Boilermakers started to feed 6'10" senior Trevion Williams, who after scoring just two points in the first half finished with a game-high 16. But he couldn't do it alone. All-American and future NBA lottery pick Jaden Ivey plummeted back to earth with just nine points on 4-of-12 shooting overall and 1-of-6 from three, including the one at the end that would have sent the game to overtime. 

Unless you count The Mustache, Saint Peter's has no stars to speak of. Just great team defense and an equally balanced offensive approach that saw scoring from all but one member of its 10-man roster. They forced 15 turnovers and nabbed nine steals. If we’ve learned anything from the Peacocks, it’s that hustle plays translate, even when you’re overmatched in terms of talent.

That's good news for Saint Peter's, because North Carolina has talent to burn, and quite a bit more than they do. UNC might have just played its most complete game of the tournament or beyond, in a 73-66 win following a back-and-forth battle with No. 4 UCLA. And they look a lot better than a No. 8 seed.

In the first round it was Brady Manek. In the round of 32, it was RJ Davis. Friday it was Caleb Love's turn. UNC's leading scorer has changed every game, and this is before we even mention the super-steady Armando Bacot. That versatility makes UNC a very tough team to deal with.

Love was unconscious for various stretches, finishing with 30 points on 11-of-24 shooting, including 6-of-13 from three. Bacot had 15 rebounds to go with 14 points, including a tip-in with about 15 seconds left to salt away the victory. 

Johnny Juzang re-emerged as a threat for UCLA but was ultimately bottled up just enough by Leaky Black, who finished third in this season's ACC Defensive Player of the Year voting. After a hot start, Juzang ended up with 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting. 

With Bacot going 6'10" and Manek going 6'9", the Tar Heels have a size edge over the Peacocks. They also have significantly more offensive firepower by just about any metric.

I'm not picking against Saint Peter’s ever again, but this is their toughest test yet.

Can Kansas Survive the Madness?

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Remy Martin

Teams: No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks (31-6) vs. No. 10 Miami (26-10) 

Region: Midwest

Date and time of game: Sunday, 2:20 pm Eastern (CBS)

Betting line (DraftKings): Kansas -280

For the third straight game, Ochai Agbaji wasn't there with the cape and cowl to bail out the Jayhawks. The Big 12 Player of the Year turned in another lackluster tournament showing, just five points on 2-of-8 shooting.

Lucky for Kansas, then, that they can always rely on that shot of Remy. Remy Martin, that is.

Remy Martin the Kansas player, you know, the person. The guy who guided the Jayhawks to a 66-61 win over the Providence Friars.

A stubborn bone bruise in his knee cost Martin seven games midseason. A rocky relationship with the program seemed to hamper his progression. Now he’s making up for lost time. It’s like one tournament game equals 10 regular games. 

Martin's been hot since the tournament began and it culminated with this game against Providence. He scored seven of his team’s first 11 points and 13 of the team’s 26 first-half points—coming off the bench, mind you.

Martin was dynamic off the dribble throughout, invading the lane to knock down 7-of-13 shots for 23 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. He’s now averaging 19.3 points for the tournament.

Martin's final scoring number was six more than the entire Providence team could manage in the entire first half. I'd call that a subpar effort from Providence.

How in the heck did Providence come all the way back? Slowly. They only grabbed their first lead with just under six minutes remaining in the game. The Friars competed, but were ultimately done in by a putrid 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) from three.

Meanwhile, Kansas is the only No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight, and they'll face a double-digit seed in Miami that had relatively little trouble with defensively gritty but offensively haunted Iowa State, defeating the No. 11 Cyclones 70-56. 

There's a lot of dynamite packed into that Hurricane small-ball lineup. Kameron McGusty was the Hurricanes' leading scorer this season (17.5), and Friday was his best game of the tournament, finishing with 27 points on a sparkling 10-of-18 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep. Fellow guards Charlie Moore and Isaiah Wong both had tough nights, contributing 14 points between them on 26.3 percent combined shooting. (Also keep in mind that this was Iowa State, the nation’s fifth-best defense per KenPom.)

When Kansas and Miami face off Sunday, the No. 1 seed will indeed be the favorite. Moore, McGusty and Wong are a dangerous trio, and any one of them can go off in any game, especially the latter two. I’d go with Kansas, but only if Agbaji can re-discover that First-Team All-America gear. If he and Martin can get in the swing simultaneously, that would be a scary occurrence for all the remaining teams.

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